Nate and Kara drive the Icefields Parkway toward Jasper, visiting the Columbia Icefield and riding an ice-crawler on the Athabasca Glacier. They cook roadside meals with friends and spot wildlife along the way.
Questions this video answers
Day nine.
About 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
About a three-hour drive.
It is the largest non-polar ice field in the world (as stated).
Over 100 meters thick (audio guide claim).
Chapters
I think it's frozen.
Oh. Feelings coming back into the face. Okay.
Good morning. It is day nine of living the van life through Canada. We woke up to it being about 20 degrees Fahrenheit here in Banff national park, and I have a bit of a sore throat. I'm hoping it'll get better throughout the day, but I need to push through because we have a big day today.
We are going to be driving the Icefields Parkway, which is a three hour drive between Banff and Jasper National Park. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. And the destination may be even more exciting than the drive because we are driving to the Columbia Ice field, which is the largest non polar ice field in the world, I believe. That's what I read.
We're not taking our van today. We're hopping in Heath and Alyssa's luxury van so Nate can film out the window. I can take a nap.
Okay. Let's get that.
Guess.
I wish you could smell this right now. Heath is cooking us brunch. This is the great thing about being in a van. You can just pull over and you have your stuff stove with you. And he has bought maple bacon sausage, which may be the greatest Canadian invention in the world. It smells so good. We are about an hour into the drive and we're here with apparently all of the other tourists that are driving the Icefields Parkway today. Wow.
It's like the sausage has been soaking in maple syrup. Canadians probably almost done. They know what they're doing.
The other great thing about road tripping in a fancy van is that you don't have to pull over at rest stops to use the bathroom built in. And check out this view. One of the better views I've ever had while using the toilet. It's slightly awkward that I can make eye contact with the people that are standing out the window. Though that window is super tinted. No one's looking at you.
Wow. We have just made it up to the Columbia Ice field. There is a crazy amount of snow up here.
It's so beautiful.
So before we go walk in the glacier, we have one other. Bless you.
Thank you. So bright up here.
We're going to walk on the skywalk, which is this giant glass platform that sits above the valley.
I'm terrified.
Thank you for driving us. Of course.
Wow.
We've been giving these audio guides that look like old school cell phones. And we've learned that the mountains that we're looking at right now, the snow caps on top of them, are over a Hundred meters thick.
Crazy.
Kara looked up earlier, and she said, it looks like they have 10ft of snow stacked on top of them.
10Ft. 100 meters.
Close enough.
The audio guide right before you step onto the skywalk talks about how it was built, and it says that there is 16 meters of steel into the rock that supports it. And then it ended with. So why does the skywalk move? When visitors walk on it, you see any large black boxes? Apparently they're dampers, which are like shocks in a car. It's supposed to.
Minimize the movement. They didn't tell me what to press next. Just ended. So I think that means it's time to walk on it. I've been kind of dreading this ever since Nate told me that we were doing it.
This is crazy.
Wow.
I'm not sure if you can tell exactly what's going on right now, but this is a glass walkway that's been built hundreds of meters above the earth, and it feels like you could just fall through the bottom at any moment.
The worst part is the movement, though. Like, it kind of bounces. Yeah.
That's the part I don't like.
Like, if I just hopped.
You're handling this really well. I really thought you would do worse.
I feel.
I guess it's been very much time on the walkway.
We just found out some big news.
Wow.
This is what we drove three hours for. We are about to take this massive ice crawler up to the glacier and get to walk on it. Check out how huge these tires are. You can put your hands up if you want.
I was feeling like this giant ice crawler was completely unnecessary. But now the road that we're going down is a 32% great. It feels like at any moment, we're just going to go sliding straight down the glacier.
Thank you. You're welcome.
We are currently taking our first steps on the Athabasca glacier. The weird thing is, though, it really, like, because there's snow everywhere, the ground just kind of looks white now, and it's hard to tell that we're actually walking on a glacier. Yeah. Like, we could be on a sidewalk for all I know. Yeah.
Apparently, the longer the ice is ice, like, the longer the glacier.
Wait, wait, wait. The reason that snow is white is because it has a lot of oxygen in it.
Yeah.
And as ice gets older, the oxygen seeps out. And so the reason that a glacier is blue is because it has less oxygen than snow.
That's what I was trying to say. I'm still not feeling 100% okay.
See if you can dig down to the glacier.
Oh, there it is.
Pretty fast.
It.
So we just learned that we're actually really lucky to even be on this glacier. For the last four days, it's been closed because they couldn't get those huge ice crawlers up here. I don't know how those things could make it up here, but apparently it was too snowy.
Good luck.
The beginning is up.
Okay.
We'Re playing a game. We're going back up to 32 degrees. Great hill. And you see who can stay standing without using their hands all the way up the hill. Oh, it's a leg workout. Oh, good.
You got it. Come on. If you want, you can do it.
It burns.
You're one of the last people standing.
The thing that I find most fascinating about the Columbia ice field is that they say it's the only triple continental divide in the world. And what that means is that the water is actually flowing to three different oceans. Part of the water flows to the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Arctic Ocean all at the same time.
Crazy. I can't believe there is any water this falling because everything is freezing. We're heading back to the van now and heading back to Banff. But first.
Tacos. We are cooking on the side of the road with the view. With friends watching the office. I cannot think of a better way to end this Christmas miracle. Well, get it out of here. Relax, okay?
And because this is Christmas, I am going to. So the day after this video was shot just happened to be Canadian Thanksgiving. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving. And it was also our last day with Heath and Alyssa. So the four of us together all attempted to cook a lot of food in a very small space.
Maple chipotle tenderloin with roasted carrots. Stuffing. Classic gravy to go on the stuffing. Mashed potatoes also can go with the gravy. Fancy green beans with almonds and grand finale Mac and cheese. My favorite. And there's brownies on the way. We're celebrating Thanksgiving Canadian style, which turns out is the same way Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Way too much food. Hanging out with friends.
Sorry for the abrupt ending to van life. We returned the van the next day. There's some huge elk in the road. It's our first time to see wildlife. Whoa. They're huge. Carolyn, down to your right.
Oh, my gosh, there's a baby.
Oh, I see the bull elk. Whoa.
Look at him.
Look at him.
Dude, he is looking around.
Look at this big daddy.
What?
That was too cool. I thought we were for sure about this. Leave Banff without seeing anything except for a deer.
And sadly, our time in Canada has come to an end. So in the next video we are going to be traveling back to.
It is day nine of something.
Nice.
Oh, shoot, I missed.
There it was.
Wait for me.
Wow, those lights are brutal. Jo fan sitting back here watching the office while we drove back.
Relaxed. I think.
We really know how.
I don't even got attached to the duck. I didn't want to see it killed. He was already dead. And we shruts use every part of the goose.
